Opinion
2007-1068 W CR.
Decided December 19, 2008.
Appeal from two judgments of the City Court of White Plains, Westchester County (Jo Ann Friia, J.), rendered July 6, 2007. The judgments convicted defendant, after a nonjury trial, respectively, (1) of leaving the scene of a personal injury incident without reporting and leaving the scene of a property damage incident without reporting, and (2) of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Judgment convicting defendant of two counts of leaving the scene of an incident without reporting affirmed.
Appeal from judgment convicting defendant of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle dismissed as abandoned.
PRESENT: RUDOLPH, P.J., MOLIA and SCHEINKMAN, JJ.
Defendant was convicted of leaving the scene of a property damage incident without reporting (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 600 [a]) and leaving the scene of a personal injury incident without reporting (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 600 [a]). Viewed in the light most favorable to the People ( see People v Contes, 60 NY2d 620, 621), the evidence was legally sufficient to establish defendant's guilt of both offenses. Moreover, giving much deference to the trial court's verdict, particularly with respect to its credibility determinations ( see People v Lane , 7 NY3d 888, 890; see also People v Romero , 7 NY3d 633 , 644-645), even as we conduct our own review of the evidence ( see People v Danielson , 9 NY3d 342 ), we find that the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence.
Defendant's Confrontation Clause claim is not preserved ( see generally People v Kello, 96 NY2d 740, 743-744; People v Taylor , 40 AD3d 782 , 783), and we decline to reach it in the interest of justice. With respect to defendant's common-law hearsay claim, which is preserved, we find that the court did erroneously admit certain hearsay testimony, but that the error was harmless, as the evidence of defendant's guilt was overwhelming, and there was "no significant probability that the [trial court] would have acquitted had the proscribed evidence not been introduced" ( Kello, 96 NY2d at 744; see People v Crimmins, 36 NY2d 230, 241-242).
Accordingly, the judgment convicting defendant of leaving the scene of a property damage incident and of leaving the scene of a personal injury incident is affirmed.
Rudolph, P.J., Molia and Scheinkman, JJ., concur.